ACCELERATING THE RESULTS AGENDA
At the International Conference on Financing for Development 2002, the presidents of the multilateral development banks pledged to work together to improve monitoring and managing for development results emphasizing the need to evaluate lending programs in terms of their impact on people and their needs rather than in terms of inputs. The World Bank is focusing on results not only to improve our effectiveness in supporting country development but also to help donor countries, clients, and stakeholders monitor our contribution to development. This results-based agenda complements the work done by the Bank’s compliance monitoring bodies – the Internal Auditing Department, the Independent Evaluation Group, the Quality Assurance Group, and the Department of Institutional Integrity – that oversee all aspects of the Bank’s work. Implementation of the Bankwide results agenda began in 2003 with actions in three areas: 
| In countries, where development results are achieved, we are helping governments strengthen both their capacity to manage for results and their ownership of a results-based approach |
| Within the World Bank, we are strengthening our skills and systems to better understand and enhance our contribution to results | | Across development agencies, we are harmonizing results-based approaches and improving our coordination of support for country capacity building. |
During the last two years the World Bank has made real progress on these three pillars of the results agenda, and experience has confirmed that this strategy is useful. Country partners, particularly those developing Poverty Reduction Strategies, are successfully laying the foundations for poverty reduction plans that include specific results desired. Within the Bank, there has been considerable progress in modifying key instruments, such as Country Assistance Strategies (CASs), to strengthen their focus on results. Externally, the Bank has been a leader in the global dialogue on managing for results, which seeks to harmonize approaches, policies, and procedures among donors and to reduce the costs to countries of dealing with multiple aid agencies.
Pillar 1: Progress in Countries
| Fourteen case studies were undertaken to analyze the poverty and growth impact of key macroeconomic and sectoral policies. They are available on PovertyNet, and a synthesis was published in 2005. The first volume of reform-specific notes, based on Poverty and Social Impact Analysis reviews, was also published in 2005. |
| All Poverty Reduction Strategies now include poverty monitoring systems. Countries are being encouraged to improve their monitoring systems, and we offer our analytic and advisory activities, lending for public sector management, poverty assessment guidelines, training programs, and knowledge sharing. | | Public Expenditure Reviews have become central to the World Bank’s analytical support for building client capacity in results-based approaches. They have also been key to aligning donor support for country development strategies and in supporting systemic reforms to budget management. | | | The Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building, working closely with PARIS21 (a partnership to promote evidence-based policy making and monitoring in all countries), has invested over $20 million in more than 80 statistical capacity-building projects since 2000. The Bank has supported the completion of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics in 13 out of 59 countries, with another 16 strategies in preparation. |
Pillar 2: Progress within the Bank
| The pilot phase of the results-based Country Assistance Strategies was completed, and results-based CASs were mainstreamed in the World Bank in January 2005. An evaluation of the pilot is available on the Bank’s Web site as Results Focus in Country Assistance Strategies: A Stocktaking of Results-based CASs. |
| The newly issued Bank Procedure 2.11 reflects experiences with results-based CASs. The CAS guidelines are being updated to reflect the requirements and features of the new methodology, new procedural arrangements, and lessons learned during the pilot phase. | | Development Policy Lending 8.60 was approved by the Executive Directors. Good practice notes have been designed to help task managers and others implement the new policy. One such note, Results in Development Policy Lending, is available on the Web. | | | The IDA14 Results Measurement System was approved and included an agreement on monitorable actions for IDA14. A Web-based tool was launched that allows tracking of all IDA commitments in the IDA14 Results Management System. This tool is publicly available and updated on a regular basis. |
Pillar 3: Progress in the Global Communit
| Key organizations have joined the Multilateral Development Bank Working Group and Joint Venture, and survey data, metadata, and methodologies are being shared and coordinated. The agencies involved in the international statistical system have agreed on a set of principles and practices against which their accountability can be measured. | | The International Household Survey Network was created, with a secretariat in the Bank. The network brings together survey producers, sponsors, and users to foster better use of survey data for policy making and monitoring. | | | The MDB Joint Venture on Managing for Development Results, of which the World Bank is a core member, has developed a Sourcebook on the principles and emerging good practices in the field in a number of sectors, ranging from infrastructure to HIV/AIDs. The Sourcebook, with 20 case studies, is available online. A primary focus of this working group is to understand and disseminate what it takes to get governments to focus on results and to facilitate partnerships among donors in assessing and supporting country capacity for results. |
The World Bank’s goal is to help our partner countries take the lead on the results agenda. At the most basic level, developing a results orientation in public sector management means fostering a changed environment in which citizens demand results and the government has systems in place to achieve and provide evidence of those results. For this, at least three fundamental things are needed: high-level leadership, demand at all levels for information on results, and ministry capability. It is important for resource allocation systems to require information on results; otherwise, there is no incentive to collect or use such information. Effective use of the information collected requires sufficient analytic capacities within either government or the local academic community. The Brazil Bolsa Familia Social Protection Program is an example of all these things coming together in one project. One important innovation is the formal extension of the “results framework” approach to decentralized governmental entities. The Ministry of Social Development and Eradication of Hunger in Brazil has carried this framework into its relations with the numerous subnational entities involved in implementing specific aspects of the program (26 states and over 5,000 municipalities) by formalizing agreements that include specified results in exchange for financial incentives. A critical lesson learned is the importance of properly “calibrating” technical milestones with the financial disbursement incentives. President Lula da Silva has praised the results achievements of this program. Mainstreaming a results orientation in the Bank and among development institutions cannot be a “quick fix” – it means a change in a 60-year-old development culture. The changes necessary are complex, and success will require time, money, and persistence. Building on progress to date, we are working on increasing the understanding of all Bank staff of how the results agenda affects their own work, and we are developing a Bank-wide system to engage country and sectoral teams in assessing and reporting on project and country-level results. We are also getting our country partners more involved in learning how to manage for results. |
Results Based Country Assistance Strategy
Delivery on Results: The Brazil Bolsa Familia Social Protection Program |
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